MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES. 51 



lect alone, appeals to the affections being reserved for cases 

 where moral elevation, and not historic conviction, is the 

 aim. It is, moreover, because the result, in the case under 

 consideration, is deemed desirable that the affections are 

 called upon to back it. If undesirable, they would, with 

 equal right, be called upon to act the other way. Even to 

 the disciplined scientific mind this would be a dangerous 

 doctrine. A favorite theory — the desire to establish or 

 avoid a certain result — can so w r arp the mind as to destroy 

 its power of estimating facts. I have known men to work 

 for years under a fascination of this kind, unable to extri- 

 cate themselves from its fatal influence. They had certain 

 data, but not, as it happened, enough. By a process exactly 

 analogous to that invoked by Mr. Mozley they supplemented 

 the data, and went wrong. From that hour their intellects 

 were so blinded to the perception of adverse phenomena 

 that they never reached truth. If, then, to the disciplined 

 scientific mind, this incongruous mixture of proof and trust 

 be fraught with danger, what must it be to the indiscrimi- 

 nate audience which Mr. Mozley addresses ? In calling 

 upon this agency he acts the part of Frankenstein. It is 

 the monster thus evoked that we see stalking abroad, in 

 the so-called spiritualistic phenomena of the present day. 

 Again, I say, where the aim is to elevate the mind, to 

 quicken the moral sense, to kindle the fire of religion in the 

 soul, let the affections by all means be invoked ; but they 

 must not be permitted to color our reports, or to influence 

 our acceptance of reports of occurrences in external Nature. 

 Testimony as to natural facts is usually worthless when 

 wrapped in this atmosphere of the affections, the most 

 earnest subjective truth being thus rendered perfectly com- 

 patible with the most astounding objective error. 



There are questions in judging of which the affections 

 or sympathies are often our best guides, the estimation of 

 moral goodness being one of these. But at this precise 



